Free dining, annual passes and no expiry!

[london75]

I've read as many old threads as possible and other sites but not got a clear answer to my question so here goes for all of your opinions if you don't mind!

Booking for next July and fancy trying something different, being off siters we're going to try OKW with free dining. Now, we all have APs which will expire early August but weren't planning to renew straight away as we tend to get APs every other year and stagger the month we go (this AP covers Aug 11 and July 12)

We'd next buy an AP in Aug 2013.

Now I'd like to obviously not waste the money spent on the ticket and it seems a 7 day premium is the best bet for upgrading to something else. While Th.e Ultimates expire in the calendar year they are bought, does a Premium expire? I assume so.

Has anyone actually split the ticket from a KTTW and added no-expiry?

If I can do that I assume it becomes a MYW non-expiry ticket which I can cash in for APs in 2013?

Any advice welcome as I need to book the free dining in the next couple of days and want to choose the right ticket.

Sorry this seems a stupid question as some might say don't bother with free dining, just pay for food but to put it in context, if we don't pay up front and get it "free" we just won't go to many restaurants and make the effort. It always feels too expensive to have Disney sit down meals so keen to force our hand a little and go DDP. I don't think we'd ever bother eating at a resort for example if we didn't "have" to for DDP! Sorry if that sounds dumb.

 

[london75]

In case anyone searches for a similar answer, we've chosen to go with the 7 day Premium Ticket as it seems it's the most likely one to be usable towards new annuals at some point.

We'll add no-expiry which seems to be $500 but will make the ticket worth $1500 towards annual passes. It's not the 886 we're paying but worth it for the free food.

I'll try to remember to post back in August 2013 if it works lol

 

[fitnessmouse]

Unused tickets do not expire, so you wouldn't need to add the 'no exp'.

 

[wayneg]

Unused tickets do not expire, so you wouldn't need to add the 'no exp'.

I believe UK tickets have to be used by end of the year purchased. Only US tickets don't expire if unused.

 

[london75]

The ultimates certainly expire, I'll post back how I get on with the 7 day premiums.

 

[london75]

I never did post back so this is what happened (started thinking about it again as we're using the tickets this August.

Spoke to a CM in DTD about what to do with the 2012 7 day tickets as they expired in 2012 and we couldn't use them. He was a little odd about it like he was doing me a massive favour but he upgraded them (if you see it as an upgrade) to 7 day Magic Your Way with 7 fun days and park hopper for around £200 if I recall. I've checked now and that makes the tickets currently worth around $1400 (or $1100 before I upgraded them).

One more thing to note for anyone searching now free dining is back for next year is that the tickets have our name on even once removed from the room keys and reprinted so anyone considering resale of the tickets might find it tricky. Not sure if that's illegal over here so thought it worth mentioning.

It's great for us as it's only going to be $100 to upgrade to 10 days which covers our tickets for this year's trip.

 

[Elise79]

We have used the 7 day premium before to upgrade to AP however its always been in the same calendar year.

What I did was used them once to enter the park and then went to upgrade them. The CM bridged them to current gate price of a 7 day MYW hopper WP&M ticket. I had to ask but it was no problem.

If you wanted to save them 'in full' that wasn't going to be an option however it could have worked if you wanted to upgrade to no expiry.

The issue for 2014 free dining is they have now done away with the premium tickets and made them all 'Ultimates' meaning there is no easy bridge it US tickets

That coupled with the price rises has ruled out Free DDP offer for us next year. I will be looking for DVC points to transfer or rent to add to ours instead.

 

[Pootle]

We have used the 7 day premium before to upgrade to AP however its always been in the same calendar year.

What I did was used them once to enter the park and then went to upgrade them. The CM bridged them to current gate price of a 7 day MYW hopper WP&M ticket. I had to ask but it was no problem.

If you wanted to save them 'in full' that wasn't going to be an option however it could have worked if you wanted to upgrade to no expiry.

The issue for 2014 free dining is they have now done away with the premium tickets and made them all 'Ultimates' meaning there is no easy bridge it US tickets

That coupled with the price rises has ruled out Free DDP offer for us next year. I will be looking for DVC points to transfer or rent to add to ours instead.

I had the Premium removed from the KTTW cards at DD (without using them) 2 weeks ago, where they treated them as though the were MYW hopper WP&M Tickets. I then had the NE option added to them, which with tax, came to just over $200 per ticket. I was quite happy to pay that, since if we go with the family we use DVC APs and try for 2/3 visits within the calendar year (I have AP vouchers for future use ) and if it's just DH and me, we sometimes don't bother with the parks at all or maybe just a day - 2 at most. Those 7 day tickets could last us a few years!

As the OP pointed out though, the new tickets do have our names printed on them.

That's interesting about the blanket use of Ultimates Tracy.

I mainly wanted the NE option because of the rumours Disney may dispense with that option altogether. Think I may just stock up on a few more 10 day NE tix from Undercover Tourist just in case.

 

[irenep]

Some interesting information from everyone.

I had 3x7 day premiums with the free DDP last July but already had 2 PAPs so I had the tickets taken off the key and used one of them for my DD. I did try to upgrade it but nobody in any of the parks or DTD could bridge it, even though it was activated so just left it.

The other two tickets I planned to use in October when me and DS were going back and the APs would have expired. I ended up having to cancel that trip so now still have those 2012 tickets and am going to be using them this year.
I have an email from WDTC to say they will still be good to use, so I just hope they are right.

I have also upgraded 14 day ultimates (to PAPs) in the past though, so I hope that option remains in future since the premiums are no longer available. In fact, I am sure I got a better price for the ultimates than what I was quoted for the premium.

Mind you, I am also having a serious rethink about free dining too and will probably now do an add-on to my DVC instead.